


sometimes our compass breaks and our steady true north fades

by prancelance



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Love Confessions, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, spoilers through ep 16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24765508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prancelance/pseuds/prancelance
Summary: To say the least, Fitzroy is mad.Following their return to Wiggenstaff’s after the centaur debacle, he and Argo had put off their little discussion about the whole “I could hear you while I was in a cursed state” thing they had going on. Frankly, both of them wanted to avoid it like the plague for very different reasons. Argo wasn’t ready to elaborate on why he was investigating Fitzroy’s past. Fitzroy wasn’t ready to have the conversation about Clyde Nite’s Night Knight School, and by extension the terrible experiences he was put through there.They barely got through the former before Fitzroy stormed out.prompts: "don't say you love me" & "i broke my rules for you"
Relationships: Argo Keene/Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt
Comments: 5
Kudos: 74





	sometimes our compass breaks and our steady true north fades

**Author's Note:**

> an anon on tumblr said "for the maplekeene prompts!! either number 8 (don’t say you love me) or i think it was 36 (i broke my rules for you) - i’m just thinking so much about how hurt fitzroy’s gonna be when he finds out about the unbroken chain mission, thinking argo’s been faking his friendship...... i want the Boys to be happy!"
> 
> well guess what anon, you're gonna get both
> 
> also they Will be happy
> 
> title from west by sleeping at last

To say the least, Fitzroy is mad.

Following their return to Wiggenstaff’s after the centaur debacle, he and Argo had put off their little discussion about the whole “I could hear you while I was in a cursed state” thing they had going on. Frankly, both of them wanted to avoid it like the plague for very different reasons. Argo wasn’t ready to elaborate on why he was investigating Fitzroy’s past. Fitzroy wasn’t ready to have the conversation about Clyde Nite’s Night Knight School, and by extension the terrible experiences he was put through there.

They barely got through the former before Fitzroy stormed out. 

Argo is following him as he scales the flights of stairs, barely noticing the strain on his legs as he takes the steps several at a time. Before he knows it, he’s outside on a balcony, chest heaving as he gasps for air. He hopes that he was at least able to put a considerable amount of distance between him and Argo, but knows he had no such luck as he hears Argo step out onto the balcony behind him.

“Fitzroy, please just let me explain,” he says, reaching out to touch his arm. Fitzroy whips around before his fingers even have the chance to brush his skin, and Argo’s hand recoils.

“No. You’ve said more than enough, Argo.” It takes so much of his self-control to not give in when he sees Argo’s face, apologetic and pleading. But he shakes it off to the best of his ability, his anger still welling up inside him like a storm. 

“I just--” he huffs, crossing his arms like that’ll guard him against any more pain, protect his heart from breaking into smaller pieces. “I don’t understand why you would do something like this. I mean, I know that I wasn’t the most amicable person at first, but I thought…” He can feel sadness wiggling its way up through his throat, pressing up against his anger in a way that’s more than uncomfortable. 

“Fitz, I…” Argo trails off like he’s trying to find the right words to say but they’re alluding him. When he hears Argo using the shortened version of his name, a pet name that makes Fitzroy wish with all his heart that everything was okay, that sadness just expands.

“I mean, was it something that I said? Or something I did? Was I not-” his voice cracks and he clears his throat, “was I not good enough? As a leader, as a friend, as a…”

Argo closes the space between them, bringing his hand up to wipe away his tears, which Fitzroy didn’t notice until that moment. “You know that’s not it, Fitz.”

Suddenly, the anger in Fitzroy’s throat boils up and out of him as he yells, “Do I?! Do I know that, Argo?” He slaps his hand away, shoving him back a few feet with more force than he intended. “How do I know that it wasn’t all fake, hm?”   


“Fitzroy-” 

“How do I know that every conversation wasn’t fake? That every time we laughed together, every time we bonded, that wasn’t just a ploy? To get more information for your little group? How do I know that every time you supported me, comforted me, every little flirtation, wasn’t you trying to get closer so you could find out more?” His voice gets louder with every question until he’s practically screaming, spit flying from his mouth as he shouts, vision tinging red as he edges closer to a rage.

Argo’s eyes are full of pain at his accusations, and his voice is just as saturated as he says, “I wouldn’t do that, Fitzroy! Not to you.”

“Why not? Why wouldn’t you do that, after you’ve already hidden so much?”

“ _ Because I love you! _ ” Argo yells, and the pain in his face mixes with frustration. The pure emotion that coats his voice shocks Fitzroy, almost as much as the words, and the red fades from his vision. Argo screws up his face and turns away, and when he speaks again his voice is wavering. “I love you, Fitzroy.”

All Fitzroy can do is stare at Argo, his breath stuck in his lungs as he processes. But then he signs, crossing his arms and looking away. “ **Don’t say you love me.** ”

“Why not?”

“Because, Argo, you- you can’t just say all of that right now and expect me to believe you completely, expect everything to be okay. Because I want to believe you, I really,  _ desperately _ do, but-” and he looks into Argo’s eyes, showing him that he means what he’s about to say. “But if you are looking at me right now and saying that to get me to stop being mad or to manipulate me or whatever, I will do something that I really do not want to do. I will lose control. And I will most definitely hurt you. That is the last thing I would ever want to do, but that… that would be so painful, I might go into a rage and never come out.”

He doesn’t want to say that he would probably give in to Chaos, lose control completely, and be powerless to stop himself. 

He sits down on a bench, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around himself tightly. 

“Fitzroy, I wouldn’t do anything like that.” Argo sits down next to him and moves his arm like he’s about to try to hold him but decides against it at the last second. “I-” and he chuckles sadly, “ **I broke my rules for you** , Fitzroy Maplecourt.”

Fitzroy rolls his eyes, using the heel of one of his palms to rub tears off of his cheeks. “Yeah, I know, you said that already. You broke the rules of your little group to tell me. Next, you’re going to say that shows how much you care, that you broke your oath or whatever it is you promised to them to keep your mouth shut.”

“No. I mean, yes. The Unbroken Chain, I broke their rules, definitely. But I broke  _ my  _ rules.” Fitzroy looks at him, confused, and he gives him a sad smile. “There was someone a long time ago. Someone who I loved with everything I had, and I thought that they loved me too.” He shakes his head and looks at the sky above them, the stars watching over them intently. “I was wrong. And after them, I didn’t think I could do it again. So I promised that I would never let myself love anybody again.”

Despite himself, Fitzroy puts a hand on Argo’s shoulder, who looks at him appreciatively.

“Fitz, I let myself fall in love with you. I didn’t want to. I tried to fight it, but the more I pushed, the more you pushed back. So I let it happen.” Argo stands, moving over to the balcony’s edge, holding on to the railing and looking out into the darkness. “None of it was fake. Not the friendship, and certainly not… anything else.”

After a few moments of deliberation, Fitzroy stands, walks over to Argo, and takes his hand. Agro is surprised, his wide eyes darting from Fitzroy’s face to his hand and back. 

“As I said, I really want to believe you, and honestly, I do believe you. And I… think that we still have a lot to talk about. I think  _ I _ still have a lot to talk about, a lot of explanations to give you. But I also think that, although this might be counterintuitive to the serious conversation we have to have afterward, I’ve wanted to do this for a long, long time.”

And in an instant, the space between them is closed as Fitzroy kisses Argo.

It’s awkward. Argo isn’t prepared, Fitzroy is extremely nervous, and the two of them are generally very hesitant. But it’s delicate, and it’s soft, and it’s  _ nice _ . 

The second kiss is objectively much better. Argo’s hands move into his hair, and Fitzroy knows it’s going to take a _ lot _ of restraint to not just stay like this for as long as possible, in each others arms,  _ finally. _

They pull apart, and Fitzroy touches Argo’s face, taking in every detail, from his wet eyes to his swollen lips, promising that he will never forget this exact moment.

“Okay, I know it’s a tough act to follow, but we should probably finish our talk.”

Argo laughs, throwing his head back, his smile brighter than all the stars combined, and Fitzroy is honestly disoriented from how fast he went from being so angry just a few minutes ago to so incandescently happy now.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s have that chat now, then we can get back to it.”

He smirks, and Fitzroy feels like he’ll never be this happy again.

(But he will. With Argo, he always will.)

**Author's Note:**

> i was grinning so much the whole time i wrote the whole "because I love you" scene. truly, I'm officially a fic writer now.
> 
> thanks so much to the anon that sent in this prompt!! i hope you liked it <3


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